Ashley Strickland is an associate producer with CNN.com. She likes tackling English toffee, channeling summer with sunflower cheesecakes, sharing people-pleasin' pizza dip and green soup, cajoling recipes from athletes and studying up on food holidays.

There is a grace in the harmony of simple flavors and taking the time and care to introduce them to one another. I like to think it’s embodied in a perfect pound cake.

Take a moment to get to know the grand dame of Southern desserts.
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In a cozy bakery in Boston’s South End, where sticky buns drip with caramel pecans and donuts are sold out by noon, a cheeky sign above the register proclaims: “Make life sweeter - eat dessert first.”

There’s no arguing with pastry chef Joanne Chang, whose Flour bakery sees crowds lining up as early as 7 a.m. for her signature treats. Indeed, the best places for dessert inspire you to throw out all the rules—eat with moderation, save the best for last—and give in to sugary bliss, no matter what the time of day.
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Biting into a piece of fried potato dough drizzled with glaze can be a religious experience in Portland, Maine. A visit to a funky new dive called The Holy Donut has become a weekly, or sometimes daily, ritual for customers craving a fix of flavors ranging from sweet potato ginger to roasted pistachio.

“I’m trying to convince myself it’s not a sin to eat donuts,” says regular Nathan Hagelin as he takes the first bite of the shop's seasonal apple cider flavor.

“Everybody wants it. They think they can’t have it, but we tell them they can,” says owner Leigh Kellis. Traditionally the poster child of unhealthy treats, donuts here are made with all natural colors and flavors, local Maine ingredients and no preservatives.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

Here’s a recent news blast from Eater.com:

“New Zealand pizza chain Hell Pizza is living up to its name by introducing Pizza Roulette. What is Pizza Roulette? It seems the pizzeria will put two drops of the super-ultra spicy ghost pepper sauce onto only one slice of your pizza, but they won’t tell you which.”
 
I find this a useful way to divide people into two camps. Camp One sees this as the most exciting innovation in the world of eating; ghost peppers are, after all, the world’s spiciest chile. Camp Two makes a mental note to go nowhere near this place, and under no circumstances order this pizza.  

In fact, the food world seems to be going toward Camp One and getting spicier. Following are spots where you don’t necessarily have to bring your own ghost peppers to make sure the food is hot enough for you.
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Kate Krader (@kkrader on Twitter) is Food & Wine's restaurant editor. When she tells us where to find our culinary heart's desire, we listen up.

If popsicles, shaved ice and all those other icy treats make you think of adorable little kids lined up at cheesy sidewalk stands, you live in the distant past. These days, it’s hard to find a frozen dessert that’s not spiked with some sort of booze. And it’s probably served in a schmancy dining room or rooftop bar. Need proof? Here's a handy list for those days when the best escape is a dessert that doubles as your cocktail.
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Ashley Strickland is an associate producer with CNN.com. She likes tackling English toffee, sharing people-pleasin' pizza dip and green soup, cajoling recipes from athletes and studying up on food holidays.

It’s the cookbook we don’t have to pull off the shelf, because it’s already open on the counter, turned to the beginnings of the next awe-inspiring meal.

It is also the book that provides the Augusta hostess with a week of recipes for the Masters Tournament. But for golfers, restaurants, resorts and families all across Georgia, it’s a scrapbook of the dishes that bookmark our lives.

In January 1988, my Aunt Edna gifted Mom with the green, plastic spiral comb-bound cookbook compiled by the Junior League of Augusta, Georgia, in 1977, creatively titled “Tea-Time at the Masters.” My mother not only rediscovered her favorite squash casserole within its pages (once thought lost forever), but recipes to start and build a family with - apropos, because I was born just a few months later in April.
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Ashley Strickland is an associate producer with CNN.com. She likes tackling English toffee, sharing green soup, cajoling recipes from athletes and studying up on food holidays.

When you have a hard time recalling what summer feels like, from the warmth of sun on bare toes to a lazy wind ruffling your hair, food will take you there. It’s the sizzle of your neighbor’s grill as he attempts teriyaki satay for the first time, or fried chicken and icebox pie on the Fourth of July. For me, it’s sunflower cheesecakes.

That sweltering July day defied normal summer temperatures in Georgia, and dared to make a mockery of delicate desserts like chocolate and cheesecake. However, I carefully packed an ice-cold combination of the two alongside my cargo of camera gear, preparing for a Sunday 2 p.m. sizzle at Coolray Field.

Working for the Gwinnett Braves, the triple-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves, had already given me nearly three months of baseball-shooting experience, an enviable tan (excluding my white, white feet, always shoved in a pair of dust-coated sneakers) and a family of co-workers that I adored.
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Welcome to round eight of Spouse vs. Spouse, a series in which a couple of married food freaks, CNN’s Brandon and Kristy Griggs, square off in their Atlanta kitchen for culinary bragging rights – and invite you to weigh in too.

In each installment, Kristy and Brandon each make a creative variation on the same ingredient or dish – everything from pasta to seafood to cocktails to desserts. We serve both versions anonymously to our friends, who then judge which one they like better and why. We walk you through our kitchen process, bring the husband-and-wife smack talk and, of course, keep score. We also share our recipes here so that you can try them for yourself.

Our theme: Romantic desserts
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Ray Isle (@islewine on Twitter) is Food & Wine's executive wine editor. We trust his every cork pop and decant – and the man can sniff out a bargain to boot. Take it away, Ray.

Dessert wines, as a category, have an appealingly paint-by-numbers purpose: they go with dessert, and occasionally, they are dessert.

But desserts are all over the place when it comes to both levels of sweetness and range of flavors. One person’s idea of dessert might be a ripe pear, where another person might argue that any dessert not involving chocolate is an utter waste of time. Ditto dessert wines, which can range from a lightly alcoholic, lightly effervescent, delicately sweet moscato d’Asti to a PX sherry with the viscosity of motor oil and a go-see-the-dentist-now sugar content.

So, a couple of things to point out. Food almost always has more effect on the flavor of wine than vice versa, and so sweet desserts make wines seem less sweet. Generally speaking, go for a wine that’s slightly sweeter than the dessert you’re serving. If the dessert is ultra-super-sweet, think coffee, or, for the brave, grappa.
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Ashley Strickland is an associate producer with CNN.com. She likes sharing green soup, cajoling recipes from athletes and studying up on food holidays.

There’s something addictive about that moment when you hand someone a homemade treat and their face lights up like you’ve just given them a hug. It turns baking into therapy, food into an olive branch, and those you share it with into a family.

I’ve experienced that joy for many years, by virtue of being the delivery girl every winter. I may have switched from wearing hair bows and Christmas dresses to newsboy caps and tall boots, but that feeling stays the same, and I always come bearing gifts.
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